27/07/2012

Electronic maestro keen to tackle 'final frontier'

Beatrice Thomas, The West AustralianUpdated July 27, 2012,

Electronic maestro Jean Michel Jarre keen to tackle 'final frontier'.

His outdoor lighting and sound extravaganzas have attracted audiences of millions.
When he performed for Prince Albert of Monaco's wedding last year, 3.5 billion people watched on television and the internet.

But Jean Michel Jarre, the famed French composer, performer and music producer, says Perth is his "final frontier".
"I've been a big fan of Australia for a long time," he said yesterday during a whirlwind visit to Perth.

"I
fell in love with the place, the environment. It's extraordinary. But
the community also, it's very nice and warm people. I said to myself we
should really promote this place to the world."

Introduced to
Perth by Maryanne Bell, a local entrepreneur and founder of ITM
Productions, the 63-year-old pioneer of electronic music is working to
bring his big outdoor concert to Perth in March after an initial
November date was ruled too ambitious.

With the concert billed to
rival the Australia Day Skyworks, Jarre said he also wanted to leave a
legacy, including through the global TV audience his concert would
attract.

A painter and a keen collector of Aboriginal art, he
envisaged it would be a key visual element of the show. And the
long-time UNESCO ambassador said he also wanted to incorporate
schoolchildren's artwork in the graphics.

"As an outsider and a
friend of Australia and a big admirer of Western Australia, I think it's
time to put this part of the world . . . on the map," he said.

The Perth concert would be his first in Australia. Jarre's 1976 album Oxygene featured in the 1981 Australian film Gallipoli.

He also spent a month at Uluru in the 1980s while promoting the album Zoolook, which was influenced by Aboriginal music.

In
a week spent working Perth corporate and government circles to shore up
backing for the March event, Jarre said he was also excited about his
new role, announced yesterday, as one of two new international
ambassadors for the Perth Fashion Festival.

The total number of page views

Jean Michel Jarre first came to international fame with his number one hit album, « OXYGENE » which went on to sell over 18 million copies worldwide.

A pioneer in his field, Jarre has largely contributed to the fastest growing musical revolution of the 20th century, electronic music : conceiving music in terms of sounds rather than only in terms of notes, and thus allowing the composer to become his own craftsman.

Having followed formal studies of harmony and counterpoint at the Conservatoire de Paris, he was inspired to reinvent music at its core, with his own singular vision, deploying the technology and tools of his epoch.

This pioneering approach gave birth to worldwide hit albums such as "OXYGENE","EQUINOXE", MAGNETIC FIELDS", "ZOOLOOK", "RENDEZVOUS", "WAITING FOR COUSTEAU"...over 80 million albums sold to date.

Following through with his revolution in music, he also conceived a brand-new genre and format of concerts; breaking away from the traditional theatre and arena context, Jarre brought his music and vision outdoors to the masses. Often free and open-to-all, these stateof- the-art concert-spectaculars showcase the natural or urban environment in which they are performed -- a truly singular sonic and visual "land-art" event, conceived and performed on a unique scale for a one-off experience.

Jarre's legendary concerts have attracted Guinness Record-breaking audiences across the planet. They take place in exceptional settings, marking extra-ordinary contexts: first western musician invited to perform in post-Mao Red China, Millennium at the Great Pyramids of Egypt, Houston City concert in collaboration with NASA in memory of the Challenger space crew, Concert for His Holiness Pope John Paul II, France's Eiffel Tower in celebration of World Cup victory, Gdansk's shipyard at the initiative of Nobel Peace Laureate Lech Walesa, London's Docklands, Beijing's Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the Sahara Desert...to the absolute record live audience of 3.5 million in Moscow.

Most recently, Jean Michel Jarre embarked on his first ever world tour which has already taken him to over 30 countries with over 220 performances.

July 2011, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco called upon Jean Michel Jarre to celebrate his Royal Wedding by creating and performing a concert-event in the Principality which was largely broadcast on television & Internet worldwide to an estimated audience of 3 billion.

The French musician has a dedicated ongoing engagement to the United Nations via UNESCO, as Ambassador and spokesperson for Environment and Education.